


Reunion

by Kaggath



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I think this counts right?, prompted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 08:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17978267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaggath/pseuds/Kaggath
Summary: Time for a side trip. The galaxy won't fall apart while they're gone....right?





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: I needed you. And you weren't there.

“The usual, Commander?” Ordering drinks with Andronikos felt awkward now that Kati’po became the unwitting Alliance Commander. She nodded before she could think. Between the limits of what could be smuggled onto the base and the sheer state of the galaxy, guessing what she wanted when she slouched over the bar wasn’t exactly a feat of intuition. 

“Make it two,” Andronikos’s tattoo quirked with his eyebrow in that infuriatingly charming way it did when he felt like he was being sly. Their first few days reunited were about as eventful as the galaxy would ever let them be. By now they needed the drink. 

“Two Corellian whiskey,” the barkeep said with a flourish. Kati’po kept it simple, straightforward, and painfully nostalgic. It wasn’t even good, it’s just what they were able to get this far out. 

“It’s what you drink when you’re missing the real thing,” Kati’po said wistfully, clinking her glass to his. His smile tugged at the collar of her jacket, and she snuck Andronikos a quick peck on the cheek before downing her drink. 

His grimace said it all. Raising his eyebrows dubiously at her, Andronikos asked, “ _This_ is your usual?”

“Most of our time and resources go into running this place,” Kati’po said, brushing the empty glass across the bar with the back of her hand. “This is all they could get ahold of for me.”

“Yeah, well, now you got a better pilot, and he’s gonna bring ya something worth drinking.”

“Don’t let Koth hear you say that,” Kati’po laughed between her fingers. He was still smiling. A few wrinkles crackled by his eyes, but his smile lines were the same as she remembered. Time…time went by without her, and it had brought him with it. She’d been afraid for so long, when she had no idea where he was or if he was okay, terrified of all the possibilities…

Her mouth was suddenly dry. The magically full glass wouldn’t help, not really, but she drank it anyway. 

“Yeah, you’re long overdue for a road trip. Come on, we’re getting you a real drink,” Andronikos said, taking her hand. 

“Commander, where are you—“

“Be right back, Beniko,” Andronikos called over their shoulders, “We got to do a systems check on the Fury. Won’t even know we were gone!”

 

 

It wasn’t smart, and it certainly wasn’t wise, but they were headed towards Corellia. When they first met, the flows through hyperspace were full of tension, suspended time…pining, wishing, wanting. Kati’po didn’t waste a moment lingering on those old emotions.

The mottled blue ether of hyperspace barely emerged from the starlines before Kati’po straddled him at the controls. It was awkward, and uncomfortable, and if she waited any longer it might have killed her. Kati’po filled her mouth with his kiss, breathed him in. His arms wrapped around her waist, and the groan that escaped him made her dizzier than the swill parading as whiskey the Alliance stocked the bar with. 

“A little early for saying ‘thank you,’” Andronikos teased. “Not that I’m complaining.” His husky voice made her shiver. Kati’po missed everything about him. The sounds he made, the feel of his touch, even his goggles tan. No being in the universe could ever be like him. Not even close.

Kati’po cupped his cheeks, pressed her forehead to his. Round trip, it was going to take a few days to get to Corellia and back. She should have felt like this was irresponsible, unnecessarily dangerous, stupid. She should have felt guilty. But she couldn’t. 

Kati’po didn’t ask for this. Any of it. She opened her eyes, and Andronikos was there, looking into her with questions unasked, feeling more like a dream than he ever had. His calloused thumb traced over her cheek, and she realized she’d been crying. The Alliance needed a leader. An unbreakable champion to rally behind against an infinite enemy. And she was the one thrust into the position. Once again she’d become an actor, the leading role on the galactic stage.

But she didn’t have to act for him. She never had. All the starch and character crumbled away as she buried her face in his neck, laughing and crying and making a general mess of herself. Every squashed down emotion she’d repressed for the sake of the Alliance spun in her heart like a carousel. 

She hadn’t realized it, but this was the first time she’d been truly alone with Andronikos. And from his perspective, it had been years. Six, almost seven years. And when they were finally together again, as alone as they could get, she was the answer to the Alliance’s questions, the go-to. Even in their intimate moments, it was rushed. They had to look over their shoulders to make sure some new catastrophe hadn’t billowed up from the turmoil of the galaxy.

“This place is a mad house. I don’t even want to go back. Every time I think I’ve made some progress, something else breaks. Every time I think I’ve found an ally, I’m betrayed. Did you hear about the assassination attempt? Saresh tried to have me killed, to take over the Alliance!”

Kati’po’s emotions roiled, ready to spill over. Andronikos’s expression clouded, his voice taking a dangerous edge as anger flashed in his eyes.

“She what.”

“After everything I’d done for the galaxy…Revan, Valkorion, the Eternal Fleet. She wanted my mantle I’d bled for, nearly died for a hundred times over, and honestly thought a shuttle crash and a handful of mercenaries would be enough to kill me. And when I exposed her in front of the very people she tried to fool into following her, I killed her where she stood.”

Andronikos grimaced, but the look in his eyes burned in shame.

“I should have been there for you…” 

Kati’po’s anger cooled, and she softened the vice that was her grip on his shoulders. She hadn’t realized she clutched him so tight until now.

“Andronikos…”

“I shoulda been with you. I tried, I really did Kat.”

The light from the viewport rippled across his face, shadows and light warring, tearing at each other. The silence screamed between them, a quiet agony writhing across her skin. Andronikos swallowed hard, couldn’t meet her eyes. He pressed his lips into a hard line as his breathing shallowed. 

“I tried, too, Andronikos,” Kati’po said as her hand hesitated millimeters from his cheek. He laced his fingers into hers, kissing her palm before pressing it to his face. His eyebrows furrowed deeper, like he was in physical pain. 

Maybe he was.

“I…when we searched for allies, recruits, I always hoped they’d be you. I tried to ask, to search for you, to leave. Anything. I wanted to know you were safe.”

It was painfully clear, painted in the tears he denied, the words she held back. They both felt it: _I needed you. And you weren’t there. I tried, and I fought, and I killed and none of it was enough to find you again until now. I’m sorry._

With a sharp breath through the nose and a few quick blinks Andronikos shook off the expression. 

“You didn’t kick immortal ass to watch me get goopy,” he laughed bitterly. Standing, Andronikos carried her off the bridge. “C’mon, we have a lot of making out to do.”

“You mean ‘making up?’”

“That too, if you want.”


End file.
